The SEOFOMO Newsletter​

June 21, 2026
​Subscribe Now​

Your weekly SEO & AI Search News to Stop the FOMO, read by +45.1K SEOs.
Today's sponsors are Datos and JetOctopus. Ask to advertise here.​

Bing is giving us the AI search insights we’ve been asking for.

​Microsoft rolls out New AI Visibility Insights in Bing Webmaster Tools: Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare​

Krishna Madhavan, Meenaz Merchant, Saral Nigam, and Trishna Shah / Microsoft

Microsoft is expanding Bing Webmaster Tools with AI visibility insights for Intents, Topics, Citation Share, and Comparison feature to help understand why they’re cited, where they’re gaining visibility, how they compare with other sources, and how citation patterns evolve. It’s not full AI search tracking, but it’s one of the most useful first-party AI visibility data layers so far.

Knowledge organization is becoming AI infrastructure.

​Google Cloud Announces The Open Knowledge Format​

Roger Montti / Search Engine Journal

Google announced the Open Knowledge Format, an open specification to organize and exchange knowledge AI systems can use, including datasets, metrics, APIs, tables, and runbooks.

• Related: Google, Microsoft Back Draft AI Agent Discovery Spec by Matt G. Southern​

Google’s message: fix the real fundamentals.

​Google Speaks On Chunking, Site Signals, Content, Paywalls & AI Clicks​

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable

Barry recaps Google Search Central Live Milan takeaways on chunking, site-wide signals, Search Console AI settings, commodity content, paywalls, subscriptions, and AI Overview clicks. The practical takeaway: avoid artificial “AI chunks” or shortcuts, and focus on useful, unique, crawlable content supported by strong site-level quality.

Focus on making your HTML content easily extractable

​Google: LLMS.txt Files Won't Help Or Hurt Your Search Rankings​

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable

Google clarified that LLMS.txt and similar AI or Markdown files won’t help or hurt Google Search rankings because Google Search doesn’t use them. They may be useful for other systems, but they shouldn’t replace crawlable HTML, helpful content, technical accessibility, and authority.

Again, markdown is not an AI search shortcut

​Should I use markdown for my site? [Video]​

Martin Splitt, John Mueller / Search Off the Record Podcast

John Mueller and Martin Splitt push back on the idea that sites need Markdown versions for SEO or AI search. Search engines already understand HTML well, and HTML provides key context through navigation, links, layout, structured data, and site architecture. Markdown can help with authoring, not replace a well-structured website.

Discover how people are really searching, discovering, and engaging online

AI continues to reshape how users discover, engage, and click across search environments. But most teams are still making decisions without a clear picture of what's actually shifting.

The Datos State of Search Q1 2026 report, created in collaboration with Rand Fishkin, maps real search behaviour across millions of users in the US, EU, and UK. AI adoption, regional contrasts, e-commerce discovery, and intent signals are all explored in detail using real clickstream data.

Organic search clicks keep shrinking, but not equally everywhere.

​Zero-Click Searches: Highest in the UK, Lowest in Germany, and France has the Most Efficient Searchers​

Rand Fishkin / SparkToro

Rand shares Similarweb clickstream data showing meaningful zero-click differences across markets. The UK had the highest zero-click rate, while Germany had the lowest and the highest share of searches ending in clicks. The EU’s anti self-preferencing legislation may be working to help keep EU searchers clicking.

Headline formats are usually symptoms, not magic levers.

​Headline formats and Google Discover: What 3.4 million articles reveal​

Sylvain Deaure / Search Engine Land

Sylvain’s analysis of 3.4 million articles shows why Google Discover headline “hacks” can be misleading. Quote-led headlines may perform better in some cases, but impact changes by publisher, audience, topic, language, and surface. Test headline formats against your own Discover data, not generic benchmarks.

SEO is under pressure, but the response can’t be panic.

​SEO Under Pressure: What's Actually Happening to the Industry Right Now ​

Gianluca Fiorelli, Daniel Foley Carter / Advanced Web Ranking

Gianluca Fiorelli and Daniel Foley Carter discuss the pressure SEOs are facing from fewer clicks, AI-mediated discovery, tougher client expectations, and the need to prove value. The takeaway: SEO isn’t dead, but reporting needs to evolve beyond rankings and clicks toward visibility, trust, source eligibility, and business impact.

Competitor reviews are a free customer research goldmine.

​The Review Gap: Finding Client Opportunities In Competitor Feedback​

Celeste Gonzalez / Search Engine Journal

Celeste explains how competitor review analysis can uncover customer language, objections, service gaps, and positioning opportunities SEOs often miss. The framework helps turn review patterns into content, local SEO, and AI search visibility opportunities.

Community-led content is becoming an organic visibility moat.

​Building a Community-Led Content Strategy for SEO Businesses​

Erin Simmons / Athens SEO

Erin explains how SEO businesses can use community-led content to reach conversations keyword research alone won’t capture, showing that's key to participate where your audience already gathers, learn from their questions and language, and turn those insights into trust-building content.

A practical workbook to connect AI search diagnostic and business impact

​The 3 Layer AI Search Diagnostic & Measurement Matrix: To Help Assess & Measure Presence, Readiness, Business Impact [Workbook]​

Aleyda Solis

I created this workbook to help SEOs connect AI search visibility issues with what to diagnose and measure next. It maps Presence, Readiness, and Business Impact metrics so AI search reporting becomes more actionable, and less about isolated screenshots or rankings.

If it’s not in the raw HTML, many AI assistants may not see it.

​Do AI Assistants Actually Render Your JavaScript when Grounding? We Put It to the Test​

Andre Alpar / Search Engine World

Andre tested 12 AI assistants and found that all major US assistants read raw HTML rather than rendered JavaScript when grounding. It's critical to server-side render or pre-render critical content, put key facts high in the HTML, and validate with logs, not chatbot claims.

Citations are not the same as recommendations.

​Why Calling Yourself the Best Could Be Helping Your Competitors Win in AI Search​

Lily Ray

Lily’s research shows that self-promotional “best [category]” listicles can be cited by Google AI surfaces while the brand itself is omitted from recommendations. Don’t only track citations; assess whether the brand is represented, framed positively, and actually recommended.

The llms.txt hype looks much bigger than the usage.

​“We Analyzed 137K Sites: 97% of llms.txt Files Never Get Read”​

Louise Linehan, Xibeijia Guan / Ahrefs

Ahrefs analyzed 137K domains and found that 97% of llms.txt files were never requested during the studied period. The takeaway: llms.txt may have use cases, but it shouldn’t be prioritized ahead of crawlable content, accessibility, authority, and source quality.

Track prompt intent groups, not endless keyword-style variations.

​What Matters In An AI Prompt? Intent or Keywords?​

Malte Landwehr / Search Engine Journal

Malte summarizes Peec AI’s analysis showing that prompt wording often matters less than the underlying intent for brand visibility, which means that what matters most is to build representative prompt groups around intents, personas, markets, and constraints, instead of tracking endless phrase variations.

Stop Reading 10 SEO Reports After Every Crawl
with the JetOctopus AI SEO Recommender

You already know the usual suspects: pages Google quietly stops visiting, URLs cannibalizing each other's rankings, crawl budget burned on pages that never convert to impressions.
​
The hard part isn't knowing these issues exist. It's knowing which one to fix first, and what to actually do about it.
​
JetOctopus's new AI SEO Recommender runs automatically after every crawl, reading crawl, logs, and GSC together. It ranks every issue by real impact: by number of pages affected, or by number of impressions at stake. Then it tells you exactly what to do, not just what's wrong. No more digging through a dozen reports to figure out what matters!

• ​SEO Manager at Receptional​
• ​SEO Analyst at Insightsoftware​
• ​SEO Sales Consultant at Geeky Tech​
• ​Senior SEO Content Strategist at Memoria​
• ​Manager, Search & AI Visibility at Resident​
• ​SEO Content Specialist at Lithia & Driveway​
• ​SEO Specialist at Consensus Cloud Solutions​
• ​VP / Head of Search & AI Visibility at Milestone Inc​
• ​SEO Specialist at Honest Digital​
• ​SEO Success Manager at Botify​

SEOFOMO x StudioHawk SEO Padel Open London

Join us for the first SEOFOMO x StudioHawk SEO Padel Open London, a fun free SEO networking event featuring padel, drinks and food at Powerleague Shoreditch on Saturday, June 27, 2026, from 10am to 3pm.

Whether you’re new to padel, already experienced, or just want to watch and cheer, there will be something for everyone:

• New to padel? Join beginner-friendly matches for new players.
• Experienced in padel? Take part in a mini-tournament for experienced players.
• Just want to watch others play and cheer? You can do that too.
• We’ll wrap up the matches with networking, free drinks and food.

This is a special event focused on SEO networking while playing (or learning) padel.... no formal SEO sessions, or talks.

When you register, we will ask you if you want to play or just watch, and if you want to pay: your level of experience to organize the matches accordingly.

Refer fellow search marketers to the free SEOFOMO newsletter and each verified new subscriber you bring in gives you one additional eligible entry in the giveaway to win:

• 1 Grand Prize Winner who will choose one eligible SEO conference experience worldwide from the available options, including a conference ticket, SEOFOMO swag, and a private SEO / AI Search Q&A session with Aleyda Solis.
  ​
• 5 Community Experience Winners who will join an exclusive virtual SEO & AI Search group Q&A session with Aleyda Solis and WTSFest London 2027 Recording Ticket.

​
The campaign started on May 31st, 2026 and will end when SEOFOMO reaches 50,000 verified subscribers, or on December 31st, 2026, whichever comes first.